The Cost of Discipleship

Summary

Published in Munich in 1937 under the one-word title Nachfolge (following, or discipleship), The Cost of Discipleship is Bonhoeffer's attempt to recover the plain command of Jesus to follow him from a Lutheran church that had, he believed, turned grace into a doctrine requiring nothing. Its first chapter sets the terms for the whole book with the contrast between cheap and costly grace. Cheap grace is forgiveness preached without repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, grace as a principle that justifies the sin rather than the sinner. Costly grace is the call of Jesus Christ that demands a person's life and gives life in return; it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son. Bonhoeffer reads Luther's own entry into and exit from the monastery as a recovery of costly grace that his heirs reduced to a comfortable formula. The following chapters examine the call itself through the Gospel stories of Levi, the rich young man and the would-be followers who first wish to bury a father. Bonhoeffer insists on the unity of faith and obedience: only the one who believes obeys, and only the one who obeys believes. He attacks the habit of reinterpreting clear commands as inner attitudes, which he calls single-minded obedience's opposite, and he argues that the call isolates each person from family, nation and natural ties so that Christ becomes the mediator of every relationship. The long central part is a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 to 7. The Beatitudes describe a community already visible in the world; the antitheses on anger, lust, oaths, retaliation and love of enemies define a righteousness that exceeds the Pharisees' by being extraordinary; the hidden piety of chapter 6 forbids even self-observation of one's goodness; chapter 7 warns against judging and closes with the narrow gate. A third part treats the sending of the twelve in Matthew 10, and a fourth, largely drawn from Paul, argues that baptism, the body of Christ and the visible church give discipleship its concrete form, ending with the restoration of the image of God in human beings conformed to Christ. The book grew out of lectures at the Confessing Church's illegal seminary at Finkenwalde, closed by the Gestapo in 1937, and it was written while German Christians and many bishops accommodated the regime. Its insistence that obedience must be concrete gives it a political edge it rarely states outright. Bonhoeffer later wrote from prison that he saw the dangers of the book while still standing by it, and its readers have argued ever since about how its near-pacifist reading of the Sermon on the Mount relates to his later part in the plot to kill Hitler.

Plot or Argument

• Costly grace against cheap grace

  The opening chapter diagnoses German Protestantism's error as grace without discipleship and uses Luther's life to show that justification once meant a call into the world under Christ's command, not a release from it.

• The call, obedience and the cross (Part One)

  Studies of Levi's call, the rich young man and Peter's walk on water argue that faith and obedience are inseparable and that the first step must be taken. Discipleship means sharing Christ's rejection and suffering; the call severs immediate ties so that the follower stands alone before Christ.

• Matthew 5: the extraordinary life

  The Beatitudes and the images of salt and light define the disciples as a visible community; the antitheses on anger, lust, divorce, oaths, revenge and enemies are read as concrete commands to be obeyed, including non-resistance to evil.

• Matthew 6: hidden righteousness

  Almsgiving, prayer and fasting must be hidden even from the self; the disciple lives free of anxiety about possessions because the single eye looks only to Christ.

• Matthew 7: the separation of the disciples

  The ban on judging others, the warnings against false prophets, and the parable of the house built on rock bring the Sermon to its call for decision.

• The messengers (Matthew 9:35–10:42)

  Jesus's compassion for the harvest, the choosing and sending of the twelve, their poverty, persecution and refusal of fear, and the promise that those who receive them receive Christ.

• The church and the life of discipleship

  Turning to Paul, Bonhoeffer argues that baptism replaces the earthly call, that the church is Christ's body taking space in the world, that the saints live a visible sanctification, and that discipleship ends in being conformed to the image of Christ.

Characters

• Jesus Christ, the one who calls

  Presented as the living Lord whose concrete word, not an idea or programme, creates discipleship.

• Martin Luther, exemplar and contested authority

  Whose recovery of grace Bonhoeffer honours and whose heirs he accuses of cheapening it.

• Levi and Peter, biblical disciples

  Models of immediate obedience to the call, discussed in Part One.

• The rich young man, biblical figure

  Case study in evading a plain command by turning it into an ethical problem.

• Abraham, biblical figure

  Called out of his kin and asked to give up Isaac, read as the pattern of the follower's break with natural ties.

Lessons

• Grace that asks nothing is a counterfeit

  Bonhoeffer's distinction between cheap and costly grace argues that forgiveness detached from changed life becomes a licence for conformity. In 1937 the target was a church that could call itself justified while accommodating Nazism.

  • What are the modern equivalents of cheap grace, in religious or secular life?
  • Is Bonhoeffer fair to Lutheran tradition, given that he presents himself as its defender?
  • How does the first chapter prepare readers to resist political conformity without naming the regime?

• Obedience cannot be postponed until belief is complete

  The formula that only the believer obeys and only the obedient believe refuses the familiar sequence of first being certain and then acting. Bonhoeffer argues that faith is learned in the step taken.

  • Is there a parallel between this argument and behavioural approaches in which action precedes conviction?
  • When does the demand for a first step become dangerous?

• The plain sense of the Sermon on the Mount

  Bonhoeffer resists every interpretation that turns turning the other cheek or loving enemies into inner attitudes or ideals for another age. The commands are to be done, which makes the book a challenge to Christian support for violence and revenge.

  • How does Bonhoeffer's reading of non-resistance square with his later role in the conspiracy?
  • What does the book mean by the extraordinary in Christian conduct?
  • Why does hidden righteousness forbid even watching oneself be good?

• Community as a visible alternative

  The last part insists that the church must take up physical space in the world, with its own order and discipline, rather than being an inward association. Finkenwalde was Bonhoeffer's experiment in that visibility.

  • What makes a community visible in Bonhoeffer's sense?
  • Does his emphasis on separation risk the withdrawal he later criticised in prison?

Context

After 1933 the pro-Nazi German Christians sought to unify Protestant churches under a Reich bishop and to apply the Aryan paragraph to clergy. The Barmen Declaration of 1934 founded the Confessing Church, which trained its own pastors in illegal seminaries. Bonhoeffer, returning from a London pastorate in 1935, led the seminary at Zingst and then Finkenwalde in Pomerania, where these lectures on discipleship were given to ordinands facing arrest, conscription and loss of salary.

Composition

The book developed from Bonhoeffer's lectures on following Christ in Berlin (1935–36) and Finkenwalde, and was published as Nachfolge by Chr. Kaiser Verlag in Munich in November 1937, shortly after the Gestapo closed the seminary. An abridged English translation by R. H. Fuller appeared in 1948 under the title The Cost of Discipleship, with a memoir by Bonhoeffer's brother-in-law Gerhard Leibholz; a complete revised translation followed in 1959. The critical German edition (1989) and the English Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works volume, titled simply Discipleship (2001), restore the original title.

Reception

The book became one of the most widely read works of twentieth-century theology in English, especially after Bonhoeffer's execution gave it the authority of martyrdom. The phrase cheap grace entered general usage. Martin Luther King Jr. and many in the civil-rights and anti-apartheid movements drew on Bonhoeffer. Theologians debate how far the book's sharp church–world distinction differs from the religionless Christianity of the prison letters; Bonhoeffer himself wrote in July 1944 that he could see its dangers though he still stood by it.

Comparisons

• letters-and-papers-from-prison

  Seven years separate Nachfolge from the prison letters; the earlier book draws the church apart in visible holiness, the later imagines faith lived fully in a world come of age, and Bonhoeffer's letter of 21 July 1944 looks back on this book directly.

• the-rule-of-st-benedict

  Finkenwalde borrowed monastic patterns of daily prayer, meditation and confession; Benedict's Rule offers the long tradition of the disciplined community that Bonhoeffer adapted for Protestant ordinands in a hostile state.

• fear-and-trembling

  Bonhoeffer's account of the call that severs natural ties, illustrated with Abraham and Isaac, is close to Kierkegaard's knight of faith, and his attack on cheap grace echoes Kierkegaard's assault on comfortable Christendom.

• the-bible

  More than half the book is a commentary on Matthew 5–7 and 9–10; reading the Sermon on the Mount alongside it shows how literally Bonhoeffer takes commands that most interpreters soften.

• city-of-god

  Augustine's two cities and Bonhoeffer's visible church both define a Christian community against a pagan or paganised empire, but Augustine accepts just war where Bonhoeffer's commentary leans toward non-resistance.

• early-christian-lives

  The ascetic lives of Antony and others show an earlier answer to the problem of a Christianity grown comfortable; Bonhoeffer praises the monastic protest but rejects withdrawal into a special class of the perfect.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The opening chapter's contrast between cheap grace and costly grace, and Bonhoeffer's account of Luther entering the monastery and then leaving it to follow Christ in the world.
• The call of Levi at the tax booth, where Bonhoeffer stresses that the gospel gives no account of Levi's inner preparation, only the call and the obedience.
• The rich young man of Matthew 19, whom Bonhoeffer reads as a man trying to turn a plain command into an ethical problem for discussion.
• Bonhoeffer's argument that the call isolates each person from family, nation, and natural ties, so that Christ becomes the mediator between the disciple and everyone else.
• The commentary on Matthew 5 to 7, especially the extraordinary righteousness of chapter 5, the hiddenness of piety in chapter 6, and the narrow gate of chapter 7.

Key terms and names

Nachfolge

The German title of the book, meaning following or discipleship. The English title The Cost of Discipleship was given to the 1948 translation; the critical English edition returns to Discipleship.

Cheap grace

Bonhoeffer's name for forgiveness preached without repentance, baptism without church discipline, and communion without confession. It justifies the sin rather than the sinner.

Costly grace

The grace of the call of Jesus Christ, which costs the disciple his life and gives life in return. It is costly because it cost God the life of his Son.

Single-minded obedience

Bonhoeffer's term for doing what Jesus commands without reinterpreting it as an inner attitude or a general principle. He sets it against the habit of explaining away clear commands.

The extraordinary

Bonhoeffer's reading of Matthew 5:47, where Jesus asks what more his disciples do than others. The disciples' righteousness must be visible and exceed that of the Pharisees.

Confessing Church

The Protestant movement founded at Barmen in 1934 against the pro-Nazi German Christians. Bonhoeffer trained its ordinands at the illegal seminary of Finkenwalde, where these lectures were given.

Finkenwalde

The Pomeranian seminary Bonhoeffer directed from 1935 until the Gestapo closed it in 1937, the year the book was published.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension How does Bonhoeffer define cheap grace and costly grace in the first chapter, and what does he say happened to Luther's teaching among Luther's heirs?
2. Comprehension What does Bonhoeffer notice about the call of Levi, and what does he say the rich young man does with Jesus's command?
3. Comprehension In the chapters on Matthew 6, why must almsgiving, prayer, and fasting be hidden even from the disciple himself?
4. Interpretation Bonhoeffer argues that faith and obedience each depend on the other. How does he keep this claim from becoming salvation by works?
5. Interpretation Why does Bonhoeffer insist that the call of Christ breaks immediate ties to family and nation? How would this teaching have sounded to ordinands in Germany in 1937?
6. Interpretation Bonhoeffer reads the commands of Matthew 5 on retaliation and love of enemies as concrete commands to be obeyed. What does he think is lost when they are treated as inner attitudes?
7. Big Question Is there such a thing as cheap grace in every age? What would it look like in your own church, school, or life?

Faith Connections

• Luke 14:25-33 (Scripture)

  Jesus tells would-be followers to count the cost like a man building a tower or a king going to war. The English title of the book draws on this passage's logic, and Bonhoeffer's whole argument is that grace which costs nothing is not the grace of this call.

• Matthew 19:16-22 (Scripture)

  The rich young man asks what good thing he must do and goes away sorrowful when told to sell all. Bonhoeffer makes him the type of every reader who answers a plain command with a question.

• Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian (1520) (Great Conversation)

  Luther argues that a Christian is justified by faith alone and is lord of all, yet out of love becomes the servant of all. Bonhoeffer claims to be recovering exactly this Luther, whose faith set the believer to work in the world, against later Lutherans who kept the first half of the paradox and forgot the second.

• Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling (Great Conversation)

  Kierkegaard's Abraham, who obeys God against every ethical expectation, stands behind Bonhoeffer's account of Abraham called out of his kin and asked to give up Isaac. Both writers attack a Christianity that has made faith easy and general.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Grace is the free gift of God, but it comes as the call of Jesus Christ to follow him. A call can be received only by obeying it, so faith and obedience cannot be separated. When the church preaches forgiveness without the call to follow, it offers a grace that justifies the sin rather than the sinner and costs nothing. Since such grace is not the grace of Christ, the church must recover costly grace by preaching the concrete commands of the Sermon on the Mount as commands, and the disciple must take the first step of obedience.

Rhetorical device: antimetabole. In the chapter on the call to discipleship in Part One, Bonhoeffer states his thesis on faith and obedience in two clauses that reverse each other's terms, so that believing leads to obeying and obeying to believing. The mirrored form keeps the reader from claiming either faith or obedience as prior.

Debate: Resolved: Bonhoeffer's reading of the Sermon on the Mount as concrete command cannot be reconciled with his later part in the conspiracy against Hitler.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Bonhoeffer accuses the heirs of Luther of turning justification by grace into a principle that requires nothing. Using his opening chapter and his reading of the rich young man, explain what he means by cheap grace and argue whether his account of Luther is fair.

Comparison with The Rule of St Benedict: Bonhoeffer honours Luther for leaving the monastery to follow Christ in the world, yet he ran Finkenwalde as a disciplined community of prayer and work. Compare his account of discipleship with Benedict's Rule, and argue whether costly grace is more naturally lived inside or outside the cloister.

Medical Lens

The book has no clinical content, but it matters for readers interested in moral psychology and in the medical ethics of the Nazi period. Bonhoeffer's father Karl was a leading Berlin psychiatrist who served on hereditary-health courts under the 1933 sterilization law while privately opposing the regime, and Dietrich later wrote against the killing of patients in his Ethics. Within this book, the chapter on discipleship and the cross treats suffering as something to be accepted rather than escaped, and the hidden-righteousness chapter offers a striking critique of self-monitoring and scrupulous self-observation, which can be read alongside clinical accounts of scrupulosity. These are interpretive links, not themes Bonhoeffer develops medically.

• Part One, Discipleship and the Cross

  Suffering and rejection are presented as the mark of the follower; the call is described as a summons to die to the old self.

  Death DyingPhilosophy AS Therapy
• Part Two, Matthew 6 (hidden righteousness)

  Bonhoeffer argues that good deeds must be hidden even from oneself and that reflective self-observation destroys them, a theme relevant to scrupulosity and perfectionism.

  Philosophy AS Therapy
• Part Two, Matthew 5 (the enemy)

  Love of enemies and refusal of retaliation are read as concrete commands, written amid persecution of Jews and dissenters.

  Medical Ethics

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Write a night at Finkenwalde in September 1937, as ordinands learn that the Gestapo has sealed the seminary and must decide whether to continue in secret.

• Dialogue

  Stage an argument between Dietrich and Karl Bonhoeffer, theologian and psychiatrist, about whether a doctor serving on a hereditary-health court is practising cheap grace.

• Essay

  Trace the road from Nachfolge's reading of non-resistance to Bonhoeffer's participation in a plot to kill Hitler. Is it a contradiction, a development, or a deliberate acceptance of guilt?

• Classroom

  Pair the Matthew 5 chapters with King's Letter from Birmingham Jail and ask how each understands the cost of nonviolent obedience.

Further Reading

• Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  1939 account of the Finkenwalde community.

• Ethics, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Unfinished manuscripts from the conspiracy years.

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography, Eberhard Bethge

  The standard life by his closest friend and student.

• Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Charles Marsh

• The Nazi Doctors, Robert Jay Lifton

  Context for the medicine of the regime Bonhoeffer opposed.